Celia's Sulfur Spring: and More Fairy Tales for Modern Dreamers

This collection of modern fairy tales breathes mythology into real sites, professions, and heroes, across the United States. Can a frog really be an imprisoned Architect? Can a future President learn diplomatic skills by out-smarting playground bul...

Girl in Blur

There once were three daughters born to the V.P. of a major television network, living in Hollywood, CA. The eldest daughter was Lena. She was not the most beautiful, but she was the most vain. Her three favorite things were mirrors, glitter, and attention. The middle sister was Mena. She was similarly vain and similarly unattractive. Her three favorite things were gossip, pleather, and . . . attention.

Then there was the youngest daughter, Nina, who was smart, loving, and uninterested in unwarranted attention. Possessing these qualities endowed Nina with a freedom and beauty that went beyond her sisters' understanding. This, in turn, made her sisters unbearable.

Attention! Attention! Attention! Lena and Mena had to have the spotlight…Always! With this thought in mind (the only one they ever had), the elder sisters went to their father and demanded that a reality show be made of their lives. To Nina, this sounded like an awful idea, and she tried to warn her sisters against it.

"We'll be made to look ridiculous," she said, but they didn't listen. Therefore, Nina was forced to take steps of her own. When asked, she refused to sign a waiver that would allow her face to be shown on screen. This meant Nina would appear merely as a blur, and nothing else. Her sisters were thrilled with this idea.

"It's as if we planned it," Lena said, as the studio van arrived. Out stepped Walter, an old cameraman, and Leo, a fresh-faced, newly-promoted Camera Assistant. Leo’s ultimate goal was to become a documentary filmmaker, and this job seemed like the perfect stepping-stone. He was unaware that he and Walter would spend the next several weeks filming the shallow escapades of Lena and Mena. There were excessive shopping sprees, dates with basketball players, random acts of arguing, and talking about friends behind their backs.

Leo's only solace were the brief moments in which Nina made an appearance. Even though he knew not to film her, he felt that her story was the one he wanted to tell. He couldn't help but pity the guy in the editing room whose job it was to blur out Nina's lovely face.

Indeed, this concern was warranted, for the editing crew would spend way longer editing Nina's appearances than on any thing else. When the show was aired, Lena and Mena became household names, but no one could stop talking about "the blurry-faced sister." Paparazzi began staking out the sisters' house. Pictures of Lena and Mena were profitable, but a picture of Nina earned top dollar. Rumors were running rampant. People said everything from, "Her beauty distorts camera lenses" to "one look in her eyes will turn you to stone."

Nina didn't mind what anyone said about her, but she didn't appreciate her newfound lack of privacy. So, late one night, while the paparazzi followed her sisters on their "glorious" night on the town, Nina sneaked out of the house with a duffle bag and the keys to her father's car. She never expected Leo to return early.

"You have two options," Leo told her, standing in front of the car. "I could alert your father to your leaving, or . . . you can take me with you." Nina had little choice but to let him in the passenger side door. He turned off his large camera as a sign of good faith. Nina didn’t know Leo had a micro camera hidden in the top button of his coat. He wanted her to be his first documentary subject.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"I think we deserve to have a 'glorious' time, too." Nina said, "And I know just the place."

Through the course of their journey, over dinner, and singing along to the radio, Leo secretly kept the camera running. He wanted to capture every moment with Nina, totally uncensored. By mid-morning, Leo was just as excited as Nina to see a sign welcoming them to “Yosemite National Park.” They parked near “Tunnel View” and looked out on a forest of pine, white fir and cedar. It was early Spring, snow remained on the surrounding peaks and cliffs.